POLICE negotiators were drafted in after a man threatened to fling himself from the top of Halton's Silver Jubilee Bridge in a suicide bid.

POLICE negotiators were drafted in after a man threatened to fling himself from the top of Halton's Silver Jubilee Bridge in a suicide bid.

The 29-year-old had already scaled the bridge before being spotted walking along the highest part of the structure.

The incident came barely a month after a Liverpool woman brought rush hour traffic to a standstill after threatening to jump from 60ft up the structure.

The bridge was closed while the experts spent almost two hours trying to coax the distraught man back down to safety.

He climbed down in the early hours of Sunday and was taken to the mental health unit at Halton General Hospital.

A Cheshire police spokesman said: 'At 10.58pm, a man was seen walking across the top of the main structure.

'The individual indicated that he might harm himself.

'Negotiations were started and the man was persuaded to come down at 12.42am.

'No-one was injured and he was taken to the Brooker Centre. No charges have been brought at this stage.'

A Halton Borough Council spokeswoman said: 'We successfully applied to the Government over 12 months ago for a bylaw to be introduced which made it an offence carrying a fine of up to #500 for people to climb on to the Silver Jubilee Bridge.

'The traffic problems associated with the bridge are well known and so it is particularly frustrating for other people when it has to be closed for safety reasons because someone has climbed onto it.

'The aim of the bylaw is to deter would-be climbers from scaling the bridge and, aside from the two recent occasions, there have been far fewer incidents since the Home Office approved the bylaws.

'Obviously, some people who climb the bridge have problems which we must sympathise with.

'But our advice to them would be to seek help through the right channels rather than putting their own and other people's safety at risk.'